N.Y. / Region

N.J. LAW; Minding the Law

By RONALD SMOTHERS

March 31, 2002

WITH the appointment of his new top assistant prosecutors last week, United States Attorney Christopher J. Christie addressed a couple of concerns -- one public and one not-so-public -- about the 123-person law office here.

The 39-year-old Mr. Christie, a corporate lawyer who in private practice handled securities work and appellate litigation, selected a 17-year veteran prosecutor, Ralph J. Marra Jr., as his first assistant; Charles B. McKenna, the deputy chief of the criminal division with 10 years experience as his executive assistant; and Paula Tumayshu Dow, an 8-year veteran of the office who had also served as an assistant United States Attorney in Manhattan for 7 years, to the position of counsel to the top prosecutor.

Together, the front-office triumvirate has more than 40 years of prosecutorial experience, a substantial leavening of criminal law experience at the top that was intended to address concerns among some attorneys that Mr. Christie lacked such experience.

While never hotly opposed by Democrats or others, Mr. Christie -- the former counsel to the president's New Jersey campaign committee and a heavy contributor to the Bush effort -- faced a solid consensus in political and legal circles that he would have to surround himself with experienced aides to win general acceptance.

''No one can question the criminal prosecution experience of these people,'' said Mr. Christie last Monday, flanked by the new team that he said ''would have a full voice'' in helping direct the office.

Quietly, there was motivation to move toward greater diversity in the office -- particularly one in which there had long been complaints that blacks and Hispanics were underrepresented -- and absent all together from the front-office jobs.

Not any more. For one thing, Ms. Dow is black, and Mr. Marra was widely viewed by defense lawyers and former colleagues as someone particularly committed to promoting the development and growth of young legal talent in the office.

Privately, some had complained that under the two previous United States attorneys, Robert J. Cleary, who is now acting United States Attorney in Southern Illinois; and Faith Hochberg, who is now a federal judge; hiring generally seemed to favor white men with Ivy League degrees.

''For many years, diversity was an issue for the office,'' said Lawrence Lustberg, president of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in the state and a former federal public defender. ''The appointment of Paula Dow shows some sensitivity to that concern and I applaud the naming of such a capable and experienced person. And with Ralph you have someone who takes particular pride in training and mentoring.''

Currently there are three black assistant United States Attorneys in the office, including Ms. Dow, five Hispanics and two Asian-Americans. Moreovewr, 35 of the attorneys in the office are females.

Jose Sierra, a former assistant United States attorney who left to join the legal department of Schering Plough, said that in one round of hiring Mr. Christie had nearly doubled the number of black assistants, an accomplishment that he said spoke volumes about the office's past shortcomings.

Gary Wilcox, who is black and was an assistant prosecutor in the office until going into private practice last year, called Ms. Dows promotion in particular ''long overdue,'' and said that he was optimistic that it marked a greater concern about diversity.

''The recent hirings that nearly doubled the number of blacks in the office look good because the numbers were so low to begin with,'' said Mr. Sierra. ''But Chris Christie has said in all of his talks with those in the office that he is committed to diversity and he has a chance to really make an impact on the office. And by promoting Paula Dow he has made it clear that he would not only hire minorities but promote them as well.''

Mr. Christie said that the entire front-office team would be involved in hiring, and added that with 20 positions to fill, ''we have a great chance to remake this office over the next six months.''

The announcements by Mr. Christie came nearly two weeks after his first choice as first assistant, Walter Timpone, came under fire and then withdrew from consideration.

As a newly hired prosecutor he needed approval by Justice Deparment officials in Washington, some of whom reportedly questioned whether he had been candid about a meeting he had while in private practice with Senator Robert G. Torricelli. At the time, Mr. Torricelli was the subject of a criminal inquiry, and Mr. Timpone was representing a former Democratic official who figured in the investigation. The investigation into Mr. Torricelli's campaign activities eventually ended in January without any charges being brought, but the concerns about Mr. Timpone's meeting lingered, and he ultimately withdrew from consideration.

Mr. Christie said that development sent him back to a list of possible appointees from within the office that he had originally put together, and it was out of that process that he chose Mr. Marra and decided to elevate Mr. McKenna and Ms. Dow.

Mr. Marra, who had been Mr. Christie's acting executive assistant since January, joined the office in 1985 and had worked as the civil, frauds and public protections and special prosecutions division, which focuses on accusations of official corruption. From 1997 until this year, he held the title of senior litigation counsel.

Most recently, Mr. Marra prosecuted former Mayor Kenneth Gibson of Newark and two associates on federal bribery allegations in a trial that ended late last year in a hung jury and will be retried later this year. Over the years, he has been involved in the prosecution of an Essex County treasurer accused of taking kickbacks in the awarding of contracts, a Cranford education official on mail and tax fraud and several agencies in North Jersey accused of illegal dumping in the regions waterways.

A graduate of New York University Law School, Mr. Marra has also worked on cases growing out of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Operation Streetsweeper, which resulted in the convictions of 20 municipal officials and employees in the state and Operation Catscam, a federal investigation into manufacturers, wholesalers and buyers of hospital X-ray and scanning equipment.

Since joining the office in 1991, Mr. McKenna -- a cum laude graduate of St. Johns's University Law School -- had served as assistant prosecutor, deputy chief and interim chief of its office's criminal division, directing prosecutions on a wide range of cases including narcotics, labor racketeering, weapons offenses and tax evasion. Most recently he was assigned to the role of lead prosecutor in the case of Ahmed Omar Sheikh, the accused kidnapper of Danny Pearl, The Wall Street Journal reporter who was recently killed in Pakistan.

Ms. Dow started in the New Jersey prosecutor's office in 1994 after spending seven years as an assistant in New York's Southern District, where she handled a variety of cases from narcotics to bank robberies, public corrpution to employment discrimination cases. Since coming to the Newark office, Ms. Dow, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, has worked in the criminal division and in the special prosecutions office.

Mr. Marra will replace Stuart Rabner who, as first assistant to Mr. Cleary and executive assistant to Ms. Hochberg earlier, had sweeping authority over the office's administrative hiring. Mr. Christie said that Mr. Rabner, a graduate of Harvard University Law School, will head up the office's newly created counter-terrorism unit, which will soon have 10 assistant United States attorneys.

Mr. Christie said that his top aides would continue on a limited basis to try cases as well as help direct the office's operations. And he dismissed any great disappointment at the outcome of his efforts to bring Mr. Timpone on, adding, ''It is actually a happy circumstance that I ended up with people who are already in the office.''